Waterbury evening Democrat., 1887-12-12
CHAPTER XVI.
OTHER PRISONERS BROUGHT IN.


 These most reasonable remonstrances produced no effect, and were not an- swered On came the new victims, clam bering slowly-there were three of them as men chained together were obliged to do when on such road. I stationed my self at the foot of the ladder, and made to them some such safe remark as, "This is hard place to come top and in 8 mo- nlent found my hand caught in Q warm, strong grasp, and SPittenger," ''Ross," was mutually whispered. It was An drews, Wollam and Ross. I had seen them chained in front of Leadbetter's room. Now they were here, and the sense of misfortune seemed frightened by half. To die in the company of friends was bet ter than to die alone. I pitied them and wished them free; but it was far better to be confined together than for us to en- durc the same suffering in separation. A whisper more to Ross brought me the in- formation that they had given their names and character. l told my story and the kind of c place into which we had come, while they gave me the history of their adventures since we had parted on leav- ing the train. There was so much to tell of the past three days history this was Monday evening" that we did not do much more ill making the acquaintance of the East Tennesseeans that night. The latter kindly allowed us to take corner close to one of the window holes, where we could the more readily converse. Ross and Wollam agreed with me that OUT best course would be to claim, with all orr strength, to be detailed Union soldiers, not denying what we really did-only claiming that we were not volunteers, but were ordered on this expedition with no choice, and simply obeyed orders. An drews also approved, but said that his case was separate from ours and much worse.
 sation, not altogether unpleasantly, and particular in such matters, but never had I been placed in such Q situation as this. Laying down in the woods unsheltered from the pouring rain was bad enough, but this was far worse. The night before in the Lafayette jail had abundance of room, air and blankets. The lattice cage was a palace in comparison with this loathsome ''hole.' We were warm enough, though we had no bedding what ever; in fact, one of the first things we did was to disrobe as far as our irons would permit. Many of the East Tennes- seeans who were not fettered were en- Clfe1y H1heu, ueCituSe ol lne lnCeuSe ueaV. But we adjusted ourselves in our corner so that our chains might cramp us as little as possible, and, ceasing to talk, were soon asleep. The others in the room were already unconscious. The one advantage of the terribly close atmosphere was that the great heat and the slow carbonic acid poisoning from the impure air rendered slumber easy, and we found little trouble in sleeping early and late. The arranging for rest required very nice adjustment, and if any one wanted to change his posi- tion he was sure to arouse all who were near him; or, if he rose up to go for a drink, he had to take along those who were chained to him, and was apt to tread on his neighbors, which gave rise to some warm alterations, with the result of still further disturbing our slumbers.
 TO BE CONTINUED.